Wireless receive/transmit units (WRTUs) such as cellular phones have been used primarily to receive voice calls and carry voice traffic and text (SMS) messages. Today, however, users use WRTUs to access information while on the go from a variety of different sources, such as the World Wide Web, application stores, and corporate resources. Smartphones, laptops, tablets, cameras, and sensors often include wide area 3G, 4G, LTE or other transceivers as well as WiFi transceivers. Advanced WRTUs (which use operating systems such as Apple's iOS, Android, and other advanced operating systems) require significant wireless network resources because of the large data traffic they generate. Some of the data-intensive tasks that may be performed on advanced WRTUs include web surfing, receiving and displaying web pages written in HTML5, downloading applications, downloading mapping elements and other geographic data, streaming of audio and video content, and video conferencing. The advent of social media and networks that allow users to check in, pin pictures, and upload all elements of their personal lives (even the most mundane details) require continual increases in available bandwidth.
Many WRTUs have the capability to support multiple air interfaces. For example, some WRTUs implement one or more “cellular” mobile technologies such as, but not limited to, UTMS, GSM, Edge, IS-95, WiFi, super-WiFi, WCDMA, TD-SCDMA, HSPDA, HSUDA, HSPA+, CDMA2000, IEEE 802.16 (Wimax), LTE, 3G, 4G, TD-LTE, and also implement “local” wireless technology such as Bluetooth, and Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technologies (such as those in the IEEE 802.11x family protocols, including 802.11a/b/g/n/af/ac).
WiFi (technologies in the IEEE 802.11 family) hot spots (also referred to as “WiFi hot spots”, access points (APs), access point controllers (AP), or wireless access points (WAPs)) have become more and more prevalent in businesses and homes. Marketers, operators and consumers alike seek to have consistent services delivered across these different types of networks. Because, hot spot coverage may not be contiguous, WRTUs may roam in and out of coverage during the course of a day. Travelers using a WRTU may even roam through different time zones. Consistent service and marketing delivery has been difficult to achieve because when a WRTU moves to a business or enterprise hot-spot, registration may be controlled by a domain server, which may not be present at a private residence. Thus, service and marketing delivery is disrupted when a WRTU roams from a business or enterprise hot-spot to a home network. One limitation for providing advanced services to multi-RAT devices comes from the heterogeneous nature of the networks to which WRTUs such as smartphones may connect. To provide consistent, persistent services and marketing, client software has typically been downloaded in the WRTU to enable a server/managing node to interrogate the WRTU.
Geo-fencing is one example technique that may be used to trigger value-added services such as control of VPN or commercial offers. They may rely on a registration process or use of location derived from, for example, GPS, GLONASS, WiFi, Bluetooth, and other indoor and outdoor position technologies.